Beef Burgers, 'Shroom Burgers, and Chicken Brats

My birthday was last week, and I knew where I wanted to celebrate: Lunch at Shake Shack, a trendy little stand in the middle of Madison Square Park in NYC. Why? Because though I haven't eaten red meat since I was 15 or so (excluding that tiny pepperoni slip 'round Christmas), I love burgers and hotdogs and fries and onion rings and other burger joint eats. And because our extremely discriminating food editor, Babs Chernetz, told me she loved the food there. In fact, I'm fairly certain she said they make one of the best burgers in the city.

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I cased the situation first: I had to know there would be food for me to eat of the non-beef and pork variety before I dragged Alison and Kim all the way downtown in the middle of the day. (We usually eat lunch in the office, you see.) Also, there's usually a long line to order—I'm talking an hour!—and if it wasn't going to be worth our while, I needed to know now.

A quick scan of their web site proved fruitful: there was a 'shroom burger, made of fried portobello mushrooms and muenster and cheddar cheeses! There was a smoked chicken apple bratwurst "dragged through the garden" with mustard, relish, onion, cucumber, pickle, and tomato. Yumm!

So we set out at 11:30 AM, to avoid the major 1 PM lunch crowd. Lucky for us, husband-to-be Rich was in town that day, and had gotten on line about 15 minutes before we arrived. So the wait was minimal. At the counter, I couldn't decide which to order: the burger or the brat? Kim made it easy by suggesting since it was my birthday, I just order both. So I did.

Delicious! I was in food heaven! The 'shroom burger was over the top, oozing with cheese and delicious with just a smidge of ketchup. And the bratwurst! So delicious, with tiny cubes of apple and all those topping crunching and smooshing and making for a flavor explosion. Seeing as how I'd ordered essentially two lunches, I shared hearty bites with my companions, and all agreed that I had in front of me some tasty chow.

Best birthday lunch ever? Quite possibly. And lucky for me, right on the menu Shake Shack tells the brand of bratwurst they use: Usinger's. Gotta run, I need to go place an order.